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Das ist etwas, dem ich oft begegne, aber nie ganz verstehe. Was bedeutet es, wenn man einen Satz mit «dass» anfängt? Ich lese jetzt einen Artikel, der um den Streit um das Made in Germany Label geht und ich bin diesem Satz begegnet :
Dass die EU nun genau regeln will, welche Kriterien für Herkunftsbezeichnungen ausschlaggebend sind, passt führenden Industrievertretern überhaupt nicht.
Ich glaube, dass es hier «since» bedeutet, aber ich weiß nicht ganz genau.
In most cases, you can silently insert a ”the fact that …” to make the sentence complete.
[Die Tatsache,] dass er mit den Kindern im Garten spielen wollte …
[Die Tatsache,] dass die EU nun genau regeln will, welche …
It's just an omission.
Es ist klar conveys an opinion, but it is not what is missing in a sentence that starts with dass as the samples above. If you simply omit Es ist klar, you can't build a sentence starting with dass. Es ist klar dass die EU viele Mitglieder hat.. You can't just leave out the Es ist klar and write Dass die EU viele Mitglieder hat. That sentence fragment does not make any sense. However, starting with Die Tatsache, dass die EU viele Mitglieder hat ist allen hier bekannt., you CAN remove Die Tatsache and the remaining
It means:
Führenden Industrievertretern passt überhaupt nicht, dass die EU nun genau regeln will, welche Kriterien für Herkunftsbezeichnungen ausschlaggebend sind.
In this case, you can invert the sentence for it has a complete meaning.
In other cases, however, it could be important what is before the dass. Say,
Dass er mit den Kindern im Garten spielen wollte. Dass er hungrig war. Dass er den Kindern geholfen hat, die Hausaufgaben zu machen. (Ende)
If you see something like that, you might have overlooked an expression like the following one in parenthesis:
(Sie freute sich darüber, dass er gekommen ist.) Dass er mit den Kindern im Garten spielen wollte. Dass er hungrig war. Dass er den Kindern geholfen hat, die Hausaufgaben zu machen. (Ende)
Dass inherits here rather the meaning of the preposition über in darüber, dass...
Dass er hungrig war. ist kein Satz.
Aug 13, 2013 at 21:24
It might be easier to understand, if you move the part of the sentence with the word "dass" to the end of the sentence and translate it with "that" (Like in "I think, that you shouldn't do that"). We are talking about "Hauptsatz" and "Nebensatz" here. In German you can append those together in different orders. Sometimes you can also insert one of them into the other (The "Nebensatz" into the "Hauptsatz"). But back to the "dass". "dass" indicates (almost) always a "Nebensatz". This is a part of the sentence, that's (dont translate "that" with "dass" here) less important for the sentence, but may make up all the sense.
I prefer to parse it as "Das [descriptive phrase] passt führenden Industrievertretern überhaupt nicht" - with an article. Of course, the phrase is not trivial (it seems to be verbal phrase, I guess, but I don't think that matters here).
The prototypical example would surely not involve another article or pronoun. I suppose rather a zu-infinitive might explain the construction best to an English speaker: "Er glaubt, dass zu verhandeln eine schlechte Idee ist", which might as well be "Dass zu verhandeln eine gute Idee ist, [das] glaubt er nicht", where the [das] is optional, and the zu-infinitive not really needed and bad style, but passable and in accord with English, "He believes that to negotiate would be ...", where Modern English prefers a noun "negotiation" in that place, or even the gerund "negotiating", too.
; A construction determiner/conjunction + to (zu) + infinitive would also explain the construction of the English to-infinitive, as the determiner would have it look all the more like a noun, "that to-do is a thing I have to do soon". Although, I have to admit I have not faintest clue about the scholarly consensus on this matter of history. It doesn't really matter here, if the only aim is to understanding the phrase.
